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Kenji Yasuda
, born in 1972, is the director for both Macross Δ and its theatrical adaptation, Macross Δ Movie: Passionate Walküre. He works on Studio Fantasia, a Japanese animation and production company founded on October 12, 1983 by Tomohisa Iizuka, then an employee of Tsuchida Production, as its CEO. In November 16, 2016, the company filed for bankruptcy. Fantasia often works in cooperation with other studios in story production, and their past credits include Macross Plus. Yasudo himself joined the company in 1995 to work on the OVA Megami Paradise, and later worked storyboarding many others over the years, eventually working with Shōji Kawamori on Macross Δ and its spinoffs. According to Anime News Network, his favorite anime include Akira, Ashita no Joe 2, Cyber City Oedo 808 and Goku Midnight Eye. He his a big fan of director Osamu Dezaki. Macross ∆ Appointment During an interview on Bandai Creators Selection, Yasudo explains how was appointed director of the television series, Macross Δ: "I got the call quite early on, back when people were saying “(Shōji) Kawamori is starting a new Macross series,” back when he still hadn’t decided on the direction it would take. At first, it was going to be something like a ‘club activities’ story, with a competition involving air combat…" When discussing the "war" aspect of Macross, he said it was natural for the franchise, even going so far as to explain who their new foe should be: "(Line producer) Eguchi Kouhei and I talked him out of it, like “It’s better to have an adversary, don’t you think?” (laughs). Because Macross F had those bugs, the Vajra, as enemies, we figured that “this time, the opponents should also be people,” and the Aerial Knights were born from that. We also chatted about how interesting it would be if the adversaries had their own singer, and so the story slowly took form. When we were close to solidifying the foundations of the characters, we had Toshizo Nemoto come on board as series composer, and set about filling them out completely. Then we had something of a camp where we set out the entire series, and kept adding more and more detail until it all materialised, until it felt complete... That said, this is Kawamori’s way of creating something—it’s quite unique in that he usually hasn’t decided for certain what will happen next (laughs)." Expanding the Universe One of Yasuda's goal was to expand the Macross Universe is truly meaningful ways, as he understood how much the overall "lord" of the franchise meant to fans, "The history is all connected, such that the chronology has become quite a considerable beast. During the script meetings, Ukyō Kodachi joined us as a record keeper, following-up on everything in terms of the settings... There are fans who are fascinated by even the smallest detail about the mechs of previous series—that in itself tells you how interesting ‘a franchise that has history’ is." Besides wanting to expand on series elements such the the Protoculture, he wanted to keep the story focused on the young protagonists and punch things up with a flash battle sequence. He also had to find a way to justify humans fighting against one another in this series, stating: "We felt that there was no getting around that. Of course, it’s something that we struggled with. It was my own selfish desire that had me saying “It’s better to have an adversary,” but as a result, I’ve had to come face-to-face with the fact that “this is what it means to be fighting against other people.” External Links *Anime News Network - Kenji Yasuda *Karice's Blog - Director Yasuda Kenji on Macross ∆ Category:Directors Category:People